Tuesday, June 23, 2015

5:46 am

Valentino: Bark! Bark! Bark, bark, bark! (transl: It’s Duke. It’s Duke. Hi Duke. Hi Duke!)

5:59 am

Mom: Miss! Oh Miss!

6:07 am

Valentino: Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark! (transl: Harpo! Hey Harpo! It’s me, Valentino! Hi Harpo!)

6:20 am

Mom: Nurse! Oh Nurse!

6:47 am

Valentino: Bark! Bark, bark, bark, bark, bark! (transl: Mom, someone is walking past our house! Look, look, look! There she goes!) Bark, bark, bark, bark! (And there go Steve and Nittany! Oh this is so much fun!) BARK! BARK! BARK! (AND MY BEST FRIEND BUDDY!!!!!!!!!)

Mom: Shut up! Who’s making that noise!

7:00 am

[The phone rings, as it does every morning. It’s Betty calling to tell me she’s on her way for our morning walk. Valentino is already at the door.]

The wake-up calls come at around the same time every day from Valentino and Betty. Mom’s calls are sporadic and she calls whoever comes to mind. Some days are better than others. But you don’t often get to sleep in. Not in this house.

Mom calls for tissues, for something to drink, to have someone cover her, to have someone take her to the bathroom (although sometimes she goes on her own), for more tissues, to ask if you will sleep with her, to ask about the man in the tree or the cat on the fan, to ask why the lights are on or why the fan is on—Do you need that light? Why is that fan running?—and to tell me that her mouth is dry and can I do something about it.

Excuse me, mom is calling me now. She has finished her supper and wants me to take her plate away. Mom will call until I appear. She’s far more relentless than Valentino. If I but appear in the living room where he stands on the two-dog windowseat to observe passers-by, he will sit and stare silently at me. Mom never shuts up!